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This section discusses the views regarding the state’s responsibility for the care of older people, which provides a background for understanding how the service policy for older people in the community has been constructed.

To understand the rationale underlying the arrangement of community service support for older people, it is necessary to know how the policy fits into the wider social welfare system and cultural expectation of the country concerned (Tester, 1996). Regarding the Chinese government’s perceived responsibility in the care of older people, the official of the national advisory body on ageing policy interviewed in this research emphasised that the Chinese society had a rich culture with traditional virtues such as respect for older people, a strong family concept recognising the care of older people as the family responsibility and a group culture with the spirit of mutual help in the neighbourhood. This, he thought, should be strengthened and sustained. In connection with this, he admitted that the current problem of home-care support for older people was its under-developed service in the community, and therefore, he called for, apart from the state’s responsibility, care responsibilities shared among family, NGOs, market, and community volunteers. The official’s view reflects the neo- liberal welfare approach under the market economy that the state has rolled back its role in welfare responsibility, with an attempt to involve multiple sectors in funding and provision, as also discussed in Chapter 2.

Some of the interviewees tended to agree with the above view that state was unable to take up the whole responsibility in the care of older people. A professor in Gerontology from Renmin University in Beijing opined that meeting the welfare needs of a huge ageing population required enormous amount of resources, arousing concerns about the affordability and the sustainability of the welfare system in the long run. She was of the view that although the country had grown rich, there were competing demands from different groups of people throughout the country, and thus the welfare could only be given at a low level:

187 The government can only provide the people with a basic protection which isn’t costly…The level of welfare can’t be as high as in the Western welfare states. It looks as if our economic growth is very fast, making the country the world’s second largest economic system, but it has to look after 1.3 billion people with lots of needs to take care of.

Holding a similar view, a professor in Sociology from Peking University considered that even among older people themselves, there existed different kinds of needs such as pensions or the lack of financial resources among migrant workers for future retirement in the city although he also recognised the need to expand the home-care support for older people. Therefore, he maintained that the state should take a ‘cautious’ approach in welfare provision. Added to this point, he emphasised that if the government took up too much of the responsibility in old-age care, it would affect the sense of responsibility of the younger generation:

While considering a policy, this point will be considered…and of course, must be considered. If the government takes up all the responsibility, the family members will forget their own responsibility, then they don’t care (about the older people).

In cultures where the state assumes that the family provides care to older people, it tends to believe that its intervention would weaken the family responsibility (Wilson, 2000). Wong (1988) asserted that the values and practices of the past have been mingled to form a stable pattern of expectations. This is particularly true that looking after older people is all along a family responsibility in the Chinese society that the government expects it to continue. Although the government is anxious to see the possible diminishing family responsibility when there is an increased welfare provision, other research findings suggested that the formal service provision has, in fact, increased the overall amount of care since it can encourage more family support through enhancing its functioning (Motel-Klingebiel, Tesch- Roemer and Kondratowitz, 2005; Patsios and Davey, 2005).

188 White and Goodman (1998) noted that the Chinese government attempts to build a negative stereotype of the Western welfare state as financially wasteful and economically unaffordable, which runs against the Asian self-reliance values. Zhang and Xu (2010) noted that there is almost a consensus among Chinese policy makers that welfare would create the dependency culture, work disincentives and financial burden, consequently leading to the economic slowdown in the long run. Zheng (2013) observed that the message of not to creating a high expectation towards welfare among the people came across in media conferences or seminars organised by the government. Professor Pei, Tsinghua University, Beijing, considered the key reason for state’s heavy emphasis on the shared responsibilities in the care of older people was due to its negative perception of welfare provision:

The government is against the idea of Western welfare state which is portrayed as a system of creating welfare reliance. Especially in the 1980s, the welfare states have experienced policy retrenchment which further reinforced its view that the Western welfare system is not sustainable…Concerning the care of older people, the role of the family can no longer be sustainable. How can they (older people) be supported in the community, when the government did not mention about the allocation of financial resources to solve the problems? Instead, it only emphasised that the problems should be solved through the family, the market, charitable organisations or other channels.

The negative consequences of welfare expansion were quoted as the reason for the state to limit its responsibility to extend its support to older people. In reality, the state is expected to play a greater role when the ongoing socio-economic changes have weakened the informal sources of old-age support, as shown in Chapter 4 and 5. How the care responsibilities should be divided among different sectors remains unclear despite the government’s stress on the shared responsibilities. Professor Liu from Peking University voiced out that the responsibility was actually not shared by the whole society equally. When he recounted his experience of looking after his aged relative, he felt that the family had to take up most of the responsibility:

189 The care of older people should be a social problem, and the responsibility should be taken up by the society as a whole. Now, it becomes a personal responsibility such that an individual has to use their own resources to solve the problem. It can’t just rely on our own to take care of ourselves.

Individuals drew welfare support from the collectives in a vertically organised and centrally planned economy in the socialist era rather than relying on the horizontally organised markets with emphasis on individual choice and responsibility today (Hussain, 2002; Saich, 2008). As noted by Zhang and Xu (2010), the stress on individual responsibility for one’s welfare is compatible with the market economy ideology which stresses on efficiency and self-reliance instead of state dependence. If the state service cannot catch up with service demands, individuals are expected to resolve their needs through their own means and the family has to take up the ultimate responsibility.

Since the economic reform, a majority of the urban older population have enjoyed a better financial condition. The rapid economic growth under the market reform has led to the rising living standard of the people (Whyte, 2010), which allows older people to enjoy a life with more choices, as discussed in Chapter 4. The expressed satisfaction on the living was reflected by Mr Fan from Guangzhou, a former newspaper editor receiving an inflation-linked monthly pension of about 4,000 yuan:

Compared with the living standard before the market reform, our existing living conditions have already improved a lot. You may notice that there are lots of older people in the parks doing exercises, dancing, singing…then having tea in the restaurants…This was rather unimaginable a few decades ago...The amount of pension increases every year.

Although the growing affluence and independence of older people have mitigated the negative impact of the socio-economic and demographic challenges on the life of older people, this does not preclude them from demanding a stronger state responsibility to look after them. Some of the older people in this research voiced out their expectations for state’s responsibilities to support them in their old age. They considered that the government should look after them or improve the facilities so that they could age in their own home. Ms Liu

190 from Guangzhou considered that her past contribution gave her the right to claim the state’s support:

Of course, the government has responsibility. We have served the country for so many years. So when we are old, we should enjoy the benefits or welfare…The government should show more concern, not only verbally, but also in practice.

As discussed in Chapter 2, individuals contributed their labour and remained loyal to the Communist Party and in return, the state provided them with welfare support in the socialist era. The market reform has transformed the state-society relationship that individuals are required to participate to earn the benefits and take up more responsibility for their own well- being. The older people feel that their past labour participation has a role to play in the rapid economic growth today and should share the economic prosperity. This is echoed by Ms Ouyang from Guangzhou. She considered that she was entitled to enjoy the fruits of economic growth and a better living standard, thus the government has a role to enhance their living in their old age:

The government has a role to play in supporting the living of older people, doesn’t it? If the country wants to improve the living of the people in general, and now there is an increasing number of older people, then undoubtedly the government needs to do something (for us).

Foreseeing the need for home-care support in their old age, the older people in empty-nest households, like Mr Guo from Guangzhou with her only daughter and son-in-law in Canada, considered that those having one-child was destined to be alone. To him, when the family could not take care of older people, the state had a responsibility to look after their needs when they turned old:

At least in the home-care aspect, certainly (we) require someone to take care of us…This depends on the benevolence and generosity of the state, just like doing charitable work (for us).

191 The decline of family support as a result of the one-child policy is also a challenge to older people who may need external support in their old age. Ms Wu, Deputy Director of a social work organisation in Liwan District, Guangzhou, considered that the state should extend its responsibility to look after those older people who complied with the one-child policy as a compensation for the limited care they could draw upon today. Chen and Yang (2014) commented that this one-child policy has undermined the family capacity in the care of older people and the state should have a responsibility to support them when they get old. Though appreciating the state’s efforts to enhance the living standards of the population as a whole, Ms Hu from Beijing, with a monthly pension of about 2,000 yuan, said that she foresaw her future need for residential care when her health deteriorated and the family could not look after her. She, therefore, hoped that the state could build some residential homes for those with a small amount of pension.

At the same time, some of the older people in this research considered that they had a responsibility to pay for the service fees:

Paying for it (meal service) is acceptable. It still costs you money even you make it at home (Ms Zhou, Beijing).

Of course, we need to pay for the service…the fee should not be too high above the average price range (Ms Liu, Guangzhou).

Ms Wang, local Residents Committee officer in Xicheng District, Beijing, who was in-charge of the older people’s welfare in her community, also added that to her knowledge, the older people would not mind spending a little more money if the support service was convenient for their use.

The state perceived the care of older people as ‘shared’ responsibilities among different sectors. The older people perceive that the state has a responsibility to support them in their old age based on their past contributions to the country, the right to share the economic prosperity and their foreseeable needs for home-care support in the future. Seeking state intervention by older people may indicate their perceived incapacity to rely solely on their own to meet the challenges resulting from the demographic and socio-economic changes in

192 the transitional economy. Through the review of the existing 9064 service framework for older people in Beijing and Guangzhou, it may give answer on how the ‘shared’ responsibilities among different sectors actually works to meet the new expectations of older people, as discussed in Chapter 4.